Acting Tools for Terps: A Crash Course in Sounding Human

Workshop/Course Description:

You take someone else’s words, thoughts, emotions, beliefs, and intentions, and you express them in your own voice. Are you a professional American Sign Language Interpreter working with a consumer or... are you an actor working with a script? Actors and interpreters have similar challenges; they want their “audience” to have an emotional response to their words, and that will never happen if they seems mechanical or robotic, or simply reciting a text without appearing to have a motivation and history behind it. Instead, actors and interpreters must strive to create the “illusion of the first time,” when the words expressed appear to be alive, original, and backed by intention. This workshop, presented by actor, director, and interpreter Alek Lev, examines the overlap between these two professions, and presents acting tools that interpreters can use to better express the content and spirit of a message, including character study, text analysis, physical presentation, and vocal control and power. Interpreters have long debated  whether or not interpreting is acting. It is. It just shouldn’t be bad acting.

Educational Objectives:

PARTICIPANTS WILL:

·      Understand and identify “The Voicing Problem” and “The Acting Problem”

·      Define and use “given circumstances” to understand the context of a message

·      Define and use “objectives,” showing that without them, a message is nearly meaningless

·      Examine how objectives changes “beat” by “beat”

·      Identify physical habits and learn to make healthier choices

·      Recognize sign production habits and take control of sign production

·      Recognize vocal production habits and learn how to use the voice with power and control

·      Use script analysis, finding beats, choosing superobjectives, scene objectives, and moment-to-moment objectives, while locating obstacles and determining given circumstances